A huge U.S. Navy did not help Philippines own the Scarborough Shoal & Spratly islands despite defence agreements & promises. The U.S. Navy has been present since the Chinese first started building man-made military islands in the South China Sea.
War is not the answer. America must leave the Philippines or Filipinos must leave their homes or lose everything in war.
Whatever makes Ferdinand Marcos confident that allowing America to occupy Philippines military bases for war against China will give Scarborough Shoal and Spratlys fisheries control to Manila has not been explained. Is this about defeating China in a war and winning the two reefs that way? They never were owned by the Philippines. The fishing rights, yes, but not the islands.
The truth is that America, when it handed back the Philippines (which the U.S. acquired from Spain in a war) to Manila in 1898, it explained concisely that the referenced islands were not included in that deal because the Americans never got them from the Spaniards. In recent times, America has been very quiet on this topic. Actually, the islands the Philippines claim had long ago been ceded to China by France after their battle, say several historians. These theories and facts are contested so China made it simple. “They are ours,” said China, about everything. China’s existence and control over those islands, although passive long precedes all other claimants according to a deep look back into ancient history. The same is true for more recent centuries.
A tribunal said that the “Nine Dash Line“ does not assign any rights to anyone. So discarding the ridiculous Chinese 9 dashes, each of the 300 charted pieces of coral, rock and turf and pile of floating seaweed contained within the ellipse of China’s nine-dash line must be seen on its own merits. That leaves China in control of plenty and also plenty of conflicted claims that have no clear-cut proof of ownership among seven nations all bickering over claims that seem petty.
It’s not so petty when one looks at what China has done, claiming a 200 nautical mile Extended Economic Zone (EEZ) around each turtle-sized stone jutting out of the water at low tide. There is plenty of law of the sea precedent that defies this aberration.
According to a China warning, the only change that comes with the massive occupation of the Philippines by the USA is an exacerbation of tensions and the end of Sino-PH relations as they have been. “This will seriously harm Philippine national interests and endanger regional peace …”
Equally true is the fact that since 2012, the massive presence of the US Navy in the South China Sea and the West Philippines Sea (the Asian Seas) with Aircraft Carrier fleets and submarines, it has been unable to make one iota of difference to the Philippines claim of EEZ sovereignty in the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratlys.
Well, it couldn’t. America knows that the Philippines never got the referenced rocks and coral. But regardless, the fishing and mineral rights for the Philippines EEZ belong to the Philippines, not China, according to The Law of the Sea and the Tribunal’s ruling.
USS Ronald Regan aircraft Carrier between Philippines and China in the Asian Seas. An F/A-18F Super Hornet attached to the Diamondbacks of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 102, launches from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy’s forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). The Diamondbacks conduct carrier-based air strike and ship, battle group, and intelligence collection operations. Photo credit: U.S. Navy Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Oswald Felix Jr. Photo is significantly cropped. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective Magazine
For the Philippines, a major disaster has begun say northern Luzon politicians. The governor of Cagayan province facing Taiwan within a short distance, fears that his province, dependent on China as its main customer and a generous benefactor, will be destroyed economically. He says what people in his region talk about is “filling their stomachs, not political agreements”.
America has armed Taiwan substantially. The USA controls much of the microchip sector in Taiwan and has a deeper penetration of the economy and ownership rights to patented processes and technology than what is apparent to most people. In short, America cannot afford to lose Taiwan and is scrambling fast to replace what it might lose if China takes back control of the island Republic of China (Taiwan). America has said it will bomb and destroy Taiwan’s microchip factories under some circumstances.
Western Philippines Sea, 14 June 2021. An EA-18G Growler attached to the Shadowhawks of Electronic Attack Squadron (VAQ) 141 launches from the flight deck of the U.S. Navy’s only forward-deployed aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76). Ronald Reagan, the flagship of Carrier Strike Group 5, provides a combat-ready force that protects and defends the United States, as well as the collective maritime interests of its allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific region. But it has been ineffective in protecting the interests if the Philippines when China took control of the Scarborough Shoal and the Spratly islands. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Quinton Lee)
Arbitrators have ruled that China had, “through the operation of its official vessels at Scarborough Shoal from May 2012 onwards, unlawfully prevented Filipino fishermen from engaging in traditional fishing”. It did not determine ownership. The Philippines ownership claim is interesting but even the former President says it holds no water.
As FPM.news has reported for years, the fisheries interruption by China has been destructive to women and their families in the Philippines and has contributed to the stunting of children under five years of age because of the missing protein in their diet due to the dearth of small fish for their food.
U.S. Board of Geographic Names: Scarborough Shoal
China name: Huangyan Dao, 黄岩岛
Philippines name: Bajo de Masinloc/Panatag Shoal
Taiwan name: Huangyan Dao, 黃岩島
Despite usual policies, the USA is providing weapons to human rights abusers, the Philippines. America needs to have control over the Philippines to wage war against China. It has absolutely no other reason to be back, occupying the Philippines. “The USA has no friends nor enemies; it only has its interests.” (Henry Kissinger)
“Selling weapons to countries like the Philippines that have disastrous human rights records and chaotic leadership, is a recipe for disaster,” wrote Trevor Thrall and Jordan Cohen of Defense News on 17 April 2021.
They explained the sentence pointing out that the Philippines military is renowned for shooting and killing its own citizens. In fact, the Philippines military only kills its own people which they became skilled at doing during the Duterte regime and apparently the Marcos/Duterte regime is no different at present according to the upwards spiral in extrajudicial killings since Ferdinand Marcos and VP Sara Duterte (Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter) took office.
“The United States has now made available $100 million in foreign military financing in part for the Philippine military to use as it wishes,” Ambassador MaryKay Carlson told a media briefing aboard the USS Ronald Reagan last October, which was on a scheduled port call in Manila as the USA government was furiously courting the Marcos government seeking access to the Philippines to fight a war against China.
Ambassador Carlson said that the Philippines could use the allocation to “offset” its decision to scrap a 12.7 billion ($227.35 million) deal with Russia reports Reuters. Manila is looking to buy heavy-lift Chinook helicopters from the United States, says the Reuters report, to help the Philippines military load large numbers of troops quickly into various regions of the country, like Negros Occidental where the government in Manila operates a type of fiefdom, politicians owning land and the locals doing the service work to grow the crops ready for sale by the owners. Of late there has been a competition wherein the workers have organized, bought up land and have created a cooperative farming system very similar to what exists in the North American mid-west. The government has been competing with military violence, unmistakably, say Negros Occidental human rights defenders.
“The most obvious downside of arming the Duterte government is that the regime is actively using American firepower to kill and imprison its own people.”
Amnesty international agrees and has taken strident steps to prevent the sale of arms to the Philippines.
The Washington Post wrote two years ago, “To put it bluntly, the Biden administration is selling weapons to at least three human rights abusers — the Philippines, Egypt and Israel.”
Horrific Massacres in Negros Occidental by the Manila Government
Wikipedia describes the region Negros Occidental as located in the western side of Negros Island, the fourth largest island in the Philippines, with a total land area of 7,802.54 square kilometers (3,012.58 sq mi). If Bacolod is included for geographical purposes, the province has an area of 7,965.21 square kilometers (3,075.38 sq mi). The province is approximately 375 kilometers (233 mi) long from north to south. It is bounded by the Visayan Sea in the north, Panay Gulf on the west, Negros Oriental province and Tañon Strait on the east and Sulu Sea on the south. Negros is basically volcanic, making its soil ideal for agriculture. Eighty percent of all arable land in the island region is cultivated.
Lakawon Island
The north and western parts of the province are largely composed of plains and gentle slopes. A mountain range lines the eastern part of the province, forming the basis of the border with Negros Oriental. Kanlaon Volcano, which is partially located in Negros Oriental, rises to a height of 2,465 m (8,087 ft) and is the highest peak in the Visayas.
11 November 2022 Demonstration in Manila. Photo Credit: Karinna Angeles. Art/Cropping/Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
Long history of state-sponsored peasant massacres in Negros Occidental
The Escalante massacre was an incident on September 20, 1985, in Escalante, Negros Occidental, Philippines, where government paramilitary forces gunned down civilians engaged in a rally in commemoration of the 13th anniversary of the Marcos declaration of Martial Law.
The Mendiola massacre was an incident that took place in Mendiola Street, San Miguel, Manila, Philippines on January 22, 1987, in which state security forces under President Corazon Aquino violently dispersed a farmers’ march to Malacañang Palace in protest for the lack of government action on land reform.
The Sagay massacre under Rodrigo Duterte’s regime occurred when a group of gunmen shot and killed nine sugarcane farmers, including four women and two children, while they were eating dinner in a makeshift tent on a farm in Sagay, Negros Occidental, on 20 October 2018.
Under Duterte, suspected state agents shot dead peasant leader Alexander Ceballos near his house in Purok Tangke, Barangay. Pandanon Silos, Murcia, Negros Occidental. He was the first recorded extra-judicial killing among the ranks of activists in Negros under the Duterte regime. Many more followed.
In a statement at the time, Kilusang Magbubukid decried the lack of justice for the murder of Ceballos and the many other peasants and peasant leaders killed by the Duterte regime. The murders continue under the Marcos/Duterte regime.
U.S. Air Force Maj. Hayden McVeigh (front), 625th Strategic Operations Squadron deputy missile combat crew commander-airborne, and Maj. Grazia Castagna, 625th Strategic Operations Squadron missile combat crew commander-airborne, review a pre-launch checklist aboard a U.S. Navy E-6B Mercury during an Operational Test Launch of an unarmed Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, April 18, 2023. ICBM test launches demonstrate that the U.S. ICBM fleet is ready, reliable, and effective in leveraging dominance in an era of strategic competition. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff. Sgt. Codie Trimble. Photo is cropped and resized. Art / Cropping / Enhancement: Rosa Yamamoto / Feminine-Perspective-Magazine
United States policy for Asia is a full nuclear capability spread across the Indo-Pacific region. That includes the Philippines.
When it comes to war with China, “all deals are off” explains an insider source at the Pentagon. “Let’s be honest, war is war and if this happens it will be an all-out massive war.”
Nobody FPM.news has queried in the past seven years is able to accept the disingenuous logic of Beijing on this nine dash line. There is none.
“It could be the end of China’s mercurial rise to prominence and glory,” said a cruise line CEO who didn’t want to be identified because of his business relations with China. “Does anyone want to deal with stupidity during these difficult times? ‘No.’,” he added.
The Nine Dash Line is Fanaticism that is based on a political war between the CCP and the Nationalist Kuomintang Party. Now, that equates to China and Taiwan.
Or maybe it really is as Robert D. Kaplan describes, “Asia’s Cauldron: The South China Sea and the End of a Stable Pacific”. Kaplan is on Foreign Policy Magazine’s list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers
The 11-Dash Line
The nine dash line was actually an eleven dash line created by Chinese geographer Yang Huairen on maps by the Chinese Nationalist Party or ‘Nationalist Kuomintang” as it was called in the years before WWII.
Nearly 300 pieces of coral, rock and turf were catalogued laboriously by Yang, given names and grids and he thereafter called this aggregate mess the ‘South China Sea Islands’, in 1947. That was the first cartographic suggestion that these burbling things in and out of water were occupied and owned by China, according to Kaplan’s book and other historic records of note.
That get’s worse. In 1947-1948, historians say, the 21st Century ruling party, the Communist Party of China (CCP), under Chairman Mao Zedong, ousted Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Kuomintang Party from government which then fled and became the ruler of Taiwan.
In the meantime, the CCP turned on Chinese geographer Yang Huairen saying his theories were nonsense and persecuted Yang Huairen for being a member Nationalist Kuomintang Party.
“They didn’t respect history,” said a noted Chinese scholar, Wang Ying, about the international tribunal which in July 2016 ruled the Chinese South China Seas claim null and void.
What is particularly strange about this comment is that there is no cartographic history, as Kaplan and other researchers have pointed out. In fact during the entire Ming Dynasty, says Kaplan, China walked away from the sea and there are no records of any of these rocks, coral or turf being occupied by a human, adds Kaplan in his book.
“What is likely the greatest truth in all this is that because there are no records, everyone can and is telling a lie about their possession.”
China has built many islands, notes JSTOR , and has claims since the 17th century of gains made during wars. But it is not alone. The Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei and Malaysia also have solid claims to some actual real estate in the South China Seas that China stole in 2012.
(International tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) Permanent Court of Arbitration )
China gets trounced. Photo Credit: Source supplied (Permanent Court of Arbitration)
Photo Art: Rosa Yamamoto FPM.news
The photo and its story: International tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) Permanent Court of Arbitration announced in 2016 that, “having found that certain areas are within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines, the Tribunal found that China had violated the Philippines’ sovereign rights in its exclusive economic zone by:
(a) “interfering with Philippine fishing and petroleum exploration”,
(b) “constructing artificial islands” and
(c) “failing to prevent Chinese fishermen from fishing in a zone that is not theirs””
- Download the Civil Society South China Sea Agreement Proposal which could walk this issue back to a peaceful resolution.
- Download if you wish, the referenced Convention on the Law of the Sea: UNCLOS
- Download: Explanation of the July 2016 court decision in favour of the Philippines
- Download The 500 pg Decision in favour of the Philippines
“I totally agree with the response of our (Beijing) government,” (which was to deny the authority of any and all courts in the matter) said Wang Ying, a Chinese marine geographer and member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Sciences is a devoted intellectual understudy of Yang Huairen. Then she said that, “the matter is one of pure science”.
There are more strokes of madness in this bizarre folly.
- The only thing in science that truly matters is the thing proven, and proof of ownership does not derive from a count of rocks, corals and water rat’s asses slithering over the rocks.
- “Where’s the science, Wang Ying? Where’s the logic,” one might ask reading the sage predictions in Kaplan’s books.
- Most analysts seem to think that Dr. Ying is embroiled in the CCP fanaticism against the ‘Nationalist Kuomintang” and the masterful Chiang Kai-Shek.
- In 1952, the 11 dash line dropped to nine when Chairman Mao Zedong, reported Time Magazine decided he would not take the obviously Vietnamese Gulf of Tonkin. But if that is the strength of ownership of anything within those nine-dash lines, there logically is none, it is no more than a grouping of things China planned to claim, and it did.
- Because the nine dash line had its roots in the work of Chiang Kai-Shek’s ‘Nationalist Kuomintang“, it, Taiwan, owns the theories, the rocks, turf and coral.
- When Taiwan first made a reciprocal claim against China, using its nine dash line, the CCP leadership was blowing fanatical gaskets. It rescinded its condemnation of Yang Huairen and adopted the nine-dash line to itself.
“If anyone can imagine a fanatical American Republican Party sending Proud Boys into the US Capitol Building to unseat the Democrats, they should apply that to the CCP (think China) and the Nationalist Kuomintang (think Taiwan) and the ownership of the South China sea. In reality, both rely on the nine-dash-line out of sheer fanatical hatred for each other,” quipped nurse Sara Qin in Shenzhen, when asked by FPM.news what medical science students thought about the growing cacophony over the nine dash line.
The antithesis to the fanatic theory.
‘While China’s aggressions in the South China Sea are building tensions,’ paraphrasing the Observer Research Foundation remarks in August 2020, “Xi Jinping has made a similar claim on the Pamir region of its north western neighbour Tajikistan. China has laid claim to the former Soviet Central Asian Republic’s Pamir region, known for gold, silver, copper, tungsten, mica, gem stones and hydrocarbon resources, even uranium.”
“That becomes an indicator that China’s CCP is nothing more than an opportunistic corrupt authoritarian bully, exploiting irrational theories and not a fanatically religious adherent to Mao,” suggests Baldock who says he has studied the dichotomy of recent history extensively and with great interest.
“Actually neither theory seems to indicate anything but a corrupt authoritarian bully,” said Baldock in conclusion.
Perhaps the world needs to impose upon the bully.
- Download the Civil Society South China Sea Agreement Proposal which could walk this issue back to a peaceful resolution if the world imposes it upon China.
“It will be a Sea with agreed boundaries based upon universal principles and governed by shared responsibilities to use its resources most wisely, a Sea where fish stocks are managed collectively for the benefit of all, where the impacts of oil exploration and international shipping are alleviated and where search and rescue operations can take place unimpeded. It could happen – if a line is redrawn,” notes Bill Hayton, in “The South China Sea: The Struggle for Power in Asia”